IDYLLIC BATTERSEA 



457 



obscure City turnings, and find himself 

 regarding the infrequent City trees with 

 a new interest, as though the dream 

 scene lay concealed behind their leafy 

 screens. 



London is an old city, but not so 

 old as the country ; before the street 

 was the tree, even as the tree will 

 grow above its last ruins. Perhaps 

 these visions of the night and fancies 

 of the day are but retrospective or 

 prospective glimpses ; pictures flashing 

 out through the darkness of time of 

 the scenes which these spots of earth 

 actually have presented or will present 

 in other ages. 



But in the present time and place the 

 waking Londoner has not yet realised 

 his dreams — not yet has he looked down 

 the right turning ; only in the imagina- 

 tion have they a local habitation and 

 a name ; and perhaps it is better so. 



"Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard 

 are sweeter." 



And yet, quite within its proper area, 

 London holds some spots of quiet beauty, 

 from which the graces have scarcely fled, 

 ^\'here even that last sweetest odour of 

 sanctity, the charm of solitude, may some- 

 times still be felt. 



Less than two miles from Charing Cross 

 there lies a little wood three acres in 

 extent, and as wild as such a thing may 

 be, with a winding path running through, 

 overhung by trees of many kinds — oaks, 

 elms, and ashes, planes, poplars white 

 and black, with a dash of a wilder 

 flavour given by some silver birches, two 

 pine trees and a yew ; beneath the 

 trees are elder bushes, long grasses of 

 many kinds, flowering nettles and bur- 

 docks six feet high ; wild hyacinths grow 

 there in the spring ; and wood pigeons, 

 blackbirds, and thrushes, with the blue- 

 tit, the wren, and the robin, sing their 

 songs, rear their 3'oung, and go their 

 own lightsome way through life in that 

 pleasant bird sanctuary. 



I'kolo^raf'h by Piitorial .lj;f>tiy. 



IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WOOD IS A GARDEN.' 

 Battersea Park. 



